:: Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops

Secret Machines

In the era of internet single downloads, it takes confidence to create an album that is more than the sum of its parts. The Secret Machine’s Ten Silver Drops is a measured trip through rolling waves of semi-psychedelic rock. The album lacks any real peaks, yet manages to gently establish its own rhythm and direction after a few listens. The New York trio, comprising brothers Brandon and Ben Curtis and drummer Josh Garza, toughed out an 18 month tour in support of their 2004 debut album Now Here Is Nowhere. Inevitably, relationships broke down in the meantime, and these conflicts have been painstakingly recorded in the studio. If you can get past the introspective and whiney opener, ‘Alone, Jealous and Stoned’, there are some otherworldly moments to look forward to on this album. The multi-layered ‘Daddy’s in the Doldrums’ is an 8 minute opus of dreamy atmospherics’ and souring guitar solos. The band show off their rock credentials with ‘Lightning Blue Eyes’, and deftly tiptoe around the keyboard on ‘I Want to Know If It’s Still Possible’. You may not walk away humming any of these songs, but Ten Silver Drops does offer a welcome change of pace.